Essay on Coach-athlete Relationship PDF

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Essay on the coach-athlete relationship and whether or not they should implement boundaries. ...

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Should there be boundaries when it comes to the coach-athlete relationship within the sport of figure skating? Introduction & literature review (background): Throughout this essay I will be discussing my potential research proposal whilst focussing on sport coaching, in particular drawing in on the coach-athlete relationship. The essay will include an overview of the research process and methods. This will be supported by previous research which will help to eventually identify a research question. It is thought, in order to be a successful coach, the coach needs to achieve an enhanced understanding of the coaching process which could lead to a universal improvement in coaching standards (Jones et al, 2005). However, there is no academic framework that is able to depict the specific environment a coaching is operating within. Goffman (1959) created the basis of understanding the interactions within the coaching environment and how the coach-athlete relationship may be influenced. The coach can aid the relationship by involving the athlete within the coaching

process.

They

can

do

this

by

discussing

performance

goals,

communicating their expectations of the athlete’s performance in competition and, questioning the athlete about their personal life such as family and academic achievements. This would help to develop a sustainable relationship as the athlete will assume the coach cares about them as a person. The level of sports performance is determined by a number of factors. Serpa (1999), states that the coach-athlete relationship is a crucial aspect contributing towards sports performance. The coach-athlete relationship can be defined as the interdependence and influence between coaches’ and the athlete’s thoughts, feelings and behaviours (Jowett & Cockerill, 2002). For example, a figure skater who is committed and trusts her coach (cognitions and feelings) is likely to respond to the coaches’ instructions more willingly (behaviour). The coach is therefore more likely to be encouraged by the levels of commitment and responsiveness of the athlete, resulting in the coach showing greater interest in the figure skater as an athlete and an individual. Wylleman’s (2000) conceptual model demonstrates that the coachathlete relationship can be defined based on the behaviours coaches and athletes manifest on the sport field.

The coach is viewed as having several roles within the relationship, including leader, friend, motivator, carer etc. Mitchell (2015) says “one of the most positive aspects of kids’ sport is that they have regular contact with a caring adult”. By the coach acting as a carer, they are able to form a bond and provide their athlete with a sense of belongingness. The elements of caring include listening, empathising, respect and acceptance (Jones, 2009). Potrac (2010) suggests the caring role should involve the coach going the extra mile, and fulfilling multiple roles. By doing this, the coach will help to motivate the athlete and increase attendance. An effective relationship will involve the coach providing instruction, guidance and support for the athlete. Although it is important for the athlete to be cared for, when do the boundaries apply? As a coach, you are not a qualified advisor or councillor. Therefore, how much can a coach support an athlete emotionally? As Jowett & Ntoumanis (2004) suggest that the relationship between the coach and athlete is usually casual and mutual. This proposes that the feelings, thoughts, and behaviours of the coach are affected by the athletes and vice versa (Rhind & Jowett, 2010). It is crucial for a coach to maintain the relationship between the athlete. The motives for the coach wanting to maintain a relationship include an attempt to achieve athletic excellence and personal growth on part of both the athlete and coach (Jowett, 2005; Miller & Kerr, 2002). Within recent years, the relationships between the coach and athlete has received a great amount of research within the world of sport psychology (Jowett, 2006; Lafreniere, Jowett, Vallerand, & Carbonneau, 2011). As Jowett & Clark carter (2006) state, the relationship between the coach and athlete is at the heart of sport training and becoming a successful coach. Previous research suggests that the quality of the coach-athlete relationship is positively associated with a variety of athlete variables for example; physical self-concept (Jowett & Cramer, 2010). A concept that also needs to be considered is how a coach-athlete relationship can be effective and successful but the it can also be effective and unsuccessful. A relationship that consists of effectiveness and successful could be considered the ideal relationship. Jowett (2005) suggests that the coach-athlete relationships can be loosely described on two interrelated dimensions. These include prizewinning relationships, where the subdimensions are successful and unsuccessful. The second dimension is helpful, caring relationships which involve two subdimensions

(effective and ineffective). An example found within the literature was Michael Phelps and Bob Bowman. It is thought their relationship was a close one and Bowman’s role went on to becoming more of a friend and counsellor as Beckham stated . Phelps went on to become the first American to win eight medals at just age 19. Although, it is argued an effective yet unsuccessful coach-athlete relationship is not ideal but still has its benefits. These benefits will only include psychological health and well-being and not performance related benefits. These types of relationships are often found within youth sport programs. This is where the philosophy tends to involve being the best the athlete can be where the emphasis is on personal growth. On the contrary, examples of successful yet ineffective relationships aren’t too difficult to unpick within the sporting world. One being the coach-athlete relationship between Alex Ferguson and David Beckham. This relationship supposedly went through a number of unpleasant events. Beckham stated that he felt he had grown out of the relationship established between himself and Ferguson. Beckham also reported that his coach failed to view him as being strong enough to stand up for himself in controversial situations. Due to Beckham feeling like this within the relationship, he decided to part ways with his coach in 2003. When it comes to setting boundaries within the coach-athlete relationship, clear communication (Branhart, 1994) is an important factor to consider. The coach needs to make their roles clear and set boundaries in order to prevent any confusion which could potentially become detrimental to the coach-athlete relationship. The athlete may feel comfortable enough to come to their coach with personal problems, which is a sign the athlete trusts their coach. However, there should be some boundaries put in place to avoid any contradictions. Each coach-athlete relationship is unique therefore each coaching environment has its own social and cultural dynamics (Cassidy et al, 2004). Factors that are potentially detrimental for the coach-athlete relationship could involve the athlete perceiving the coach as having favourites, the coach will then have to deal with the legacy this may leave (Potrac at al, 2002). However; this is more likely to occur within team sports. Coaches potentially have their favourites when it comes to individual sports but athletes are less likely to witness this themselves during training sessions. Especially in the world of figure skating due to the fact skaters generally have private lessons. If the athletes perceive the coach as

having favourites within team sports, this could lead to affecting performance as well as the relationship established. Within team sports, athletes are required to work together cohesively to achieve success. On the contrary, for individual sports athletes do not rely on others in order to be successful. This results in the coach’s behaviour altering within team environments in order to achieve team cohesion and to meet the expectations of the organisation they are working within (Shaw, 1981). Whereas, coaches are likely to alter their behaviours within individual sports due to the pressure from parents of the athletes. This suggests the coach needs to constantly be aware of their role within a specific environment in order to recognise the needs of the athletes. This relates to Goffman’s theory (1969) where he discusses role distancing. The coaches distanced themselves from being serious and adapted a humorous approach. They were aiming to create an environment where the athletes felt comfortable. This resulted in magnifying the coach-athlete relationship.

Aims & Objectives Considering the information found within the literature review, I decided the aim of this study is to explore if and when boundaries should be applied within the coachathlete relationship. In this case, I will be focussing on individual sports as they involve considerably more one on one contact between the coach and athlete. The individual sport being drawn upon will be figure skating. Through the literature supporting the problem I designed the question, ‘should there be boundaries when it comes to the coach-athlete relationship within the sport of figure skating?’ The scope of this study will be to discover, first-hand from the coaches themselves what they believe to be an acceptable coach-athlete relationship and if and when the boundaries should be implemented. The study will also consist of their own experiences. The reason why the study is focussing on coaches that coach individual sports is due to the fact the coach-athlete relationship tends to be more personal as they spend more one on one time together than team sports. As the coach and athlete spend more time together, this allows for more unnecessary incidents to occur.

The importance of further investigating the coach-athlete relationship would ideally help improve the challenges that confront the sport community. Athlete’s are likely to suffer from depression, lack of support and loneliness. As Kenny (1995) says that “society has an interest in preventing destructive relationships, and we (social scientist) are the people who are best equipped to assist society in this endeavour” (p.598). This suggests that as the coach, it is as important to act as a caring individual towards the athlete as well as focussing on just the performance-based principal.

Method When studying the methodological approach, it is important to understand and consider the differences between ontological and epistemological assumptions. Ontology is a view point that has been proven (Whitbeck, C, 1989). On the other hand, epistemology is a view point that has not yet been proven and a study will support to prove the point (Stanley, L, et.al.,1990). To carry out this research, semi-structured interviews will be used. Semi-structured interviews do not strictly follow a formal set of questions. The type of data accumulated will be qualitative. Qualitative research questions should enable the principles of qualitative methodologies to be enacted. This type of research allows for more in-depth answers. Jowett & Cockerill (2003) discovered that in the last decade, research on the coach-athlete relationship has adapted a qualitative approach to better comprehend the complex nature of the coach-athlete relational context. Due to this, researchers will tend to use interviews or observations therefore, this type of research is appropriate for this study. A challenge that may occur when performing qualitative research is making it context specific. However, the qualitative research method is appropriate for this study as one of the aims is to gain subjective data. Another weakness to consider when performing this research is errors may occur. This is because the researcher is interviewing alone. They will also be recording the interviews and then transferring them into transcripts without any assistance so therefore it is possible to leave some information out. To avoid these errors, the interviews will be listened to and

transcribed a number of times to ensure all the information provided by the participants is presented. It has been concluded that a quantitative research method will not be appropriate for this study. Quantitative research involves methods such as questionnaires (consisting of closed-ended questions only), surveys, where only numerical data is recorded. Quantitative research will not be useful within this study as the opinion of coaches is being studied whereas, quantitative research is objects therefore, not open to opinion.

Participants The sample I plan to interview will preferably be figure skating coaches or coaches whom have experienced coaching individual sports such as; gymnastics, trampolining etc. The age of the sample may vary. There may be older and more experienced coaches or coaches whom have recently become qualified. By using a range of coaches with a variety of experiences will make the results more generalisable for a wider population. I currently do not have a confirmed sample size. However, I am going to aim for around 10-20 coaches. Preferably, I would have liked to use a larger sample size but the number of coaches I am able to interview that are accessible are minimal. Prior to the actual interviews, I will organise and conduct practice interviews. This is a good way for finding any faults within the interview questions that need to be corrected, whether it be the participant not understanding the question or it being too much of a closed question therefore not gaining enough information/data on the topic. Once I have corrected the faults, I will then perform another practice interview to make sure the corrections were effective and if any more corrections need to be made. When directing the final product and a problem occurs such as the subject being offended by a question asked and challenge me as the interviewer, if I feel it is appropriate, I will answer their concerns with a knowledgeable, acceptable answer. The interview will consist of around 10-20 questions. The questions will flow nicely from one to the other. Leading questions within the interview will be avoided. The

interviewer should not influence the subjects’ answers in any way otherwise the data received will be considered unreliable. Data analysis Once I have conducted the interviews, the data will be collected and represented by using qualitative content analysis. This is a research technique used to make replicable and valid implications. This is done by interpreting and coding textual material. This type of analysis involves systematic procedures for processing data (Zhang & Wildemuth, 2009) for example; into documents, oral communication, and graphics. The purpose of this analysis is to condense the raw data into data that can be used to help answer the research problem. This type of analysis takes three dissimilar approaches. These approaches include conventional, directed, or summative (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). All three approaches are involved when interpreting the meaning from the content of text data and therefore follow the naturalistic paradigm. The key differences within the approaches are the coding schemes, origins of codes, and threats to trustworthiness. Content analysis is being increasingly used by researchers as a tool to analyse qualitative data. Although, many researchers are unaware of how to deal with the challenges that content analysis may cause. This could include locating satisfactory measures, ensuring the data is reliable and valid, and identifying coding schemes. The advantages of content analysis include being valuable in organisational research as it allows researchers to recover and examine the distinctions of organisational behaviours. This type of analysis allows researchers to draw upon socio-cognitive and perceptual constructs that are considered challenging to study. Content analysis techniques can additionally help close the gap between largesample research, which may suffer from internal validity issues, also small sample research, which allows for the collection of primary data and in-depth analyses but may lack external validity problems (Pfarrer, Pollock, & Rindova, 2010). When presenting the data, it will need to be put into a variety of categories. This is because a large amount of data will be collected and then put into smaller clusters of information making it more accessible. The categories will be named relating to the answers of the respondents. In this case, the categories will be relevant to the

subjects’ opinions on the coach-athlete relationship and whether boundaries need to be implemented. Ethical considerations It is crucial to consider ethics when including human subjects within research. As the researcher, it is my role to protect the participants from both mental and physical harm. The objective when conducting the study is to ensure that the research serves the interest of the individuals and the society. Prior to performing the actual interviews with the figure skating coaches, their informed consent will be required in order to make the research ethical. To achieve this, they will need to be informed of the true aim of the study and agree to their data be used and potentially shared. If their informed consent has not been given, then the subjects will not be able to take part in the study. The management of risk will also have to be considered. This will entail looking at protection of confidentiality so none of the subjects’ personal information, for example; their full name or address, is shared. It will remain confidential. The interviewer needs to respect the subjects and stick to the rules. If these rules are not complied with then consequences will apply, which could potentially mean the research cannot be published.

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